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Members of the Church of the Silence, formerly the Papal Mainframe, the Confessional Priests were genetically engineered by the Church to allow people to confess their sins without remembering doing so, accomplished by fashioning the Priests so anyone looking at them would forget their encounter when they looked away. (TV: The Time of the Doctor) A renegade batch of Priests became obsessed with preventing the Siege of Trenzalore, and travelled back in time, influencing human history over a long period of time. They became known to the Doctor as Silents. (TV: The Impossible Astronaut, Day of the Moon, The Wedding of River Song)
- You may be looking for the Silence.
Appearance
They were tall humanoids, around seven feet tall, with bulbous heads and grey, mouthless faces. Their hands had four large, spatulate fingers. They had small eyes in deep recesses in the skull. Their eyes lacked sclera and were completely dark. They spoke in deep, raspy voices and made growling or clicking noises. They wore black suits and ties in the style of 20th century male government workers on Earth. (TV: The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon)
Powers and abilities
Amnesia and hypnotic ability
Silents remained hidden on Earth for hundreds of thousands of years, since the early Stone Age. They were uniquely "memory-proof"; anyone who saw them would instantly forget about them the moment they looked away - even if they saw a photograph of a Silent. Anyone looking at the Silents would recover their memories of previous sightings. Although any lifeform would forget the Silents when they weren't looking at them it was still possible to hear them, and people who knew they existed could listen for them in order to sense when they were nearby. This was shown when River Song shot down a Silent without even looking at it. (TV: Day of the Moon)
The Silents were also impervious to at least some types of scanning devices, as River Song's bio scanner did not detect them in the underground tunnels. (TV: The Impossible Astronaut) She appeared to upgrade the software later to make sure this didn't happen again. (TV: Day of the Moon)
The Silents influenced the actions of others by issuing commands to anyone looking at them. These orders would remain in a person's mind after they had forgotten the encounter with the Silent, acting like post-hypnotic suggestions. Any instruction spoken while a subject looked at a Silent, even a picture of one, would cause this effect. "Repeated memory wipes fry your head eventually", which was the case for Dr Renfrew, whom the Silence used to keep Graystark Hall Orphanage open beyond its closing day. (TV: Day of the Moon)
The Silents employed human or humanoid operatives who wore eye drives, devices worn over the eye that artificially recorded information and fed it directly into the brain, allowing those wearing them to remember the aliens after looking away. However, they could use these to remotely kill their operatives if needed. (TV: The Wedding of River Song)
The Doctor and his companions put marks on their skin so that they knew they'd had an encounter with something dangerous, even if they couldn't remember what it was. After marking themselves so many times, the Doctor was able to figure out why they were doing it, realising that they were fighting a memory proof enemy. (TV: Day of the Moon, The Wedding of River Song)
Other powers
Silents could also absorb electricity, even the smallest amount of static electricity from the air into their bodies, increase the voltage a hundred-fold and fire it from their hands. These energy discharges could obliterate victims. When absorbing and discharging energy, a hole would appear on the Silent's face, under the skin, where a mouth would be. (TV: The Impossible Astronaut, Day of the Moon, The Wedding of River Song)
The Silents were very strong, able to shatter reinforced glass by pushing on it. They could smash through barricaded doors with ease. One Silent took two direct hits from a handgun at point-blank range and survived, though it was unable to walk. However, Silents could be killed by enough gunfire; in an alternate timeline, Amy Pond killed three with a machine gun. They could also be killed by a single, direct hit from an energy weapon such as River Song's Alpha Meson blaster. (TV: Day of the Moon, The Wedding of River Song)
They could hang upside down from ceilings and lie in waiting, much like bats. (TV: The Impossible Astronaut, Day of the Moon, The Wedding of River Song)
History
The Doctor called them parasites; they were unable to develop any science or technology on their own. Instead they relied on other species. (TV: Day of the Moon)
The Silents had been on Earth for thousands of years, since the time the wheel and fire were developed, unnoticed by the human race. They used post-hypnotic suggestion to make humans do their bidding in such things as going to the Moon. (TV: Day of the Moon)
In 1561, Silents took notice of a time storm and the arrival of River Song and the Doctor. They managed to separate them across time, sending the Doctor two centuries into the future. Around this time, they were experimenting with stasis field technology. They were harnessing the temporal energy to further their endevours, but River stole their generator. The Doctor and River arrived later to steal a Silence Time Capsule to break through the Daleks' Time Lock. The Silents used a piece of the Eternity Clock to change fixed points in time. The Silents were defeated by River Song and the Doctor stole the Time Capsule. (GAME: The Eternity Clock)
Silents appeared in London 1605, while Amy, Rory and the Doctor solved the mystery that involved the Rutan Host and the gunpowder plot. At least one Silent was in the Houses of Parliament when it was in orbit. It was seen by Rory Williams whilst he was fixing an EMP generator. (GAME: The Gunpowder Plot)
A Silent was in the White House in 1969 (WC: Prequel (The Impossible Astronaut)) and killed a woman named Joy in front of Amy Pond before delivering a post-hypnotic suggestion for her to "tell the Doctor what he must know, and what he must never know". (TV: The Impossible Astronaut)
Before July in 1969, a great number of Silents had taken up residence at a disused orphanage where the little girl was held. They used post-hypnotic suggestions to make the director believe the orphanage was still in operation. They showed great interest in the little girl, putting her in a life support "astronaut" suit to keep her healthy and safe - even equipping the suit with a built-in weapons system. The Silents kidnapped Amy when she was investigating the orphanage with Canton. They took her to their underground lair and cryptically told her that she would help "bring the Silence." (TV: Day of the Moon)
The Doctor inflicted a crushing defeat on the Silents when he ensured that humanity saw footage of a wounded Silent they held captive spliced into the footage of the Moon landing broadcast. In it, the Silent said "You should kill us all on sight"; it had said this to Canton Delaware, sneering at human mercy while he tried to help heal it after it had been shot. This footage was immediately viewed by half a billion humans, It would be seen every time anyone saw the Apollo 11 landing, one of the most famous and frequently viewed film sequences in the history of humanity. Without enough time to implant more post-hypnotic suggestions when humans looked at them, the remainder of the Silents on Earth in 1969 seemed doomed, although at least one did survive to 2011. (TV: Day of the Moon)
A single Silent spied on the Doctor, Amy, Rory and River in 2011 Utah. Amy noticed it before she was distracted. (TV: The Impossible Astronaut)
Two Silents witnessed Madame Kovarian kidnap River Song from the Luna University and force her into an astronaut suit as part of Kovarian's plan to kill the Doctor. When River asked Kovarian what they were, Kovarian replied, "your owners." (TV: Closing Time)
In the Area 52 Pyramid in an alternate timeline, over a hundred Silents were "captured" by Amy Pond's troops and placed in specimen tanks filled with water to prevent them from drawing electricity. (WC: Prequel (The Wedding of River Song)) This turned out to be a trap to get to the Doctor. The Silents easily broke out and killed the guards. Three Silents tried to kill Rory, but were gunned down by Amy. (TV: The Wedding of River Song)
The Doctor and Clara encountered several Silents onboard the Papal Mainframe during the Siege of Trenzalore. It was here the Doctor revealed that the creatures were genetically engineered confessional priests whom members of the Church could confess their sins to, then immediately forget what they confessed about. It was also explained that the Silents behind the attempts on the Doctor's life were in fact a renegade faction of the Church devoted to stopping the Doctor by any means necessary. (TV: The Time of the Doctor)
The Silents onboard the Papal Mainframe - along with the rest of the Mainframe's crew - were converted into Dalek puppets when the Daleks invaded the Mainframe. They helped set a trap for the Doctor, and allowed three Daleks to enter the conference room where the Doctor was in. Later, multiple Silents (presumably non-Dalekized ones) assisted the Doctor and the people of Trenzalore against the horde of the Doctor's enemies attacking the planet. (TV: The Time of the Doctor)
Behind the scenes
Inspiration
Steven Moffat has said that he was inspired by Edvard Munch's The Scream when creating the Silence's appearance.[1] He has also cited that the urban legends of the Men in Black inspired him to have Silents wear a black suit and tie.[2]
Additionally, the Silents' hand structure was inspired by the aye-aye, a nocturnal mammal found in Madagascar. The Brilliant Book 2012
The Brilliant Book 2012
The Brilliant Book 2012, a book that contains non-narrative based information. included a lot of unknown history behind the Silence;
- Amy Pond theorised that the Silents created the tribal belief that cameras steal one's soul and were behind the "Maury Island Incident" in 1947.
- River Song theorised that the Silents may also have been responsible for the Philadelphia Experiment and had encouraged wars as a form of population control.
- Rory Williams thought the rise of 1950s alien invasion films and 1940s-60s UFO sightings might have been subconscious reactions to the Silents and that the Silents made repeated thefts of Edvard Munch's The Scream to suppress imagery of them.
- In 1955, people in and around the Kelly-Hopkinsville farmhouse experienced lights and sound, but only a few alleged seeing aliens. After interviewing witnesses, Air Force Division man Gary F. Hodson drew what people claimed to have seen: a creature that resembled a Silent.
- In 1961, Betty Hill and Barney Hill were abducted by Silents, who performed pregnancy tests on Betty. It became the most famous alien abduction in America.
- A large group of Silents took refuge in a Naval shipyard in 1969 Pennsylvania.
Other matters
- Silents appear in the Doctor Who video game The Gunpowder Plot as Easter Eggs. They have no effect on the plot and narrate various in-game descriptions of objects found in the game, often with their own particular spin on them. (GAME: The Gunpowder Plot)
- A single member of the species is known as a "Silent" while more than one are called "Silents". Until clarified in Let's Kill Hitler, the Silents were presumed to be synonymous with the Silence. The Wedding of River Song establishes that the Silents are the leaders of the Silence. Whether "Silents" is indeed the name of the species, or simply a name applied to them by their followers is, to date, unknown.
- Silents show many similarities to the fictitious internet meme monster "Slender Man"; such as their tall, thin stature, their grey skin and rounded heads, and the suits that they wear. Most interestingly of all is their ability to make people forget, which is very similar to "Slender Sickness" which gives victims amnesia. Some of the only features that dissociate a Silent from "Slender Man" are their distinctive indents on their faces (which vaguely resemble a skull), "lightbulb" head shape, their lack of tentacles, and their ability to talk. Also Slender Man possesses an ability to seemingly teleport when not observed which is shared with the Weeping Angels.
- Silents also slightly resemble the Gentlemen from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
- Their reliance on other races for ideas is similar to that of the Eternals, who also relied on humans (among others) for ideas.